Back to BASICS

What have we said so far ?

God chose to give Jesus all preeminence. . . huge undergirding principle. Even things like "the manna that came down out of heaven" and "the Rock that followed them" - was Christ, not to mention Christ was the creator of the world, Colossians 1:16.

Jesus Himself claimed to be "The Way, The Truth, The Life" - and at least to some degree the subject of Scripture, John 5:39. BUT - we jump over some Scriptures too fast . . .so back up with me - it is one Scripture which changed my mind about where Jesus should be put in our focus.

THE Way . . .means He didn't come with a way - rather He IS the Way. What ?

THE Truth . . .means He didn't just speak Truth, but is in fact, Truth - Reality is a closer conceptual construct to Greek thinking . . .so think about Jesus as being The Reality ! What ?

Life - THE Life - well, we don't stumble over that too much, except those who think life comes from His words and His words are the Bible. NO - His words are in the Bible, but HE is The Life - and we don't get it simply by reading the Bible - but rather, like He told the Pharisees of His day - Come to ME . . .for Eternal Life. Am I putting down the Bible ? Of course not - just allowing the Bible to do what God designed it to do - bring us to Christ; teach us The Christ; be IN the Christ.

I found out I had really been disrespecting Christ by not allowing Him to be who He is and said He was . . .some might call that an innocent oversight - but innocent oversights are sometimes not so innocent from students of the Word.

Isaiah 42:6; 49:8 - doesn't say Jesus would come WITH a covenant . . .but He was sent for a covenant. The NIV gets part of the emphatic part of the sentence by translating it - "Sent to be a covenant".

We do need to deal with little contradictions of concept - Jesus is God by one definition but He was also our representative, so He had to be human - contradiction. But - God loving us enough to gave Himself up in the Person of Jesus - represents a contradicition to philosophers and even to Jesus' own disciples. O K - we might call it an apparent contradiction - but we do need to face the fact that God designed His plan so that man wouldn't know it without a large dose of Humility ! After all - as Jeremiah wrote - "We know the way of man it not in himself - it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps" and Paul agreed that the "world in its wisdom did not know God"

Jesus - in reference to God is the reality . . .Paul called Him the "image" of the invisible God. John explained that "no one has ever seen God, the only begotten has made Him known" so that when Jesus said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father" we sometimes try to explain it away. A quandary - a conundrum . . .and problem ? NO - not for covenant people. Why not ? Well - simply because that is their conceptual language. Jesus had to be our representative - but He also had to be God's representative . . .and the only one who qualified to be that occured only one time in all history !

What is the concept ? In covenant wars - like the David and Goliath story - each nation chose a Champion to represent their nation. This champion had to be one of them - an Israelite for Israel and a Philistine for Philistia. (So - the Champion who lost, lost it for the whole nation.) David knew that, but he knew much more - he had apparently read Deuteronomy and realized that fearful people were NOT supposed to even be there . . .they were to go home. So - Saul shouldn't have been out there either . . .but God did have a champion, an already anointed King who knew what Kings do . . .in the Power of God - they WIN ! God's champion in Israel had to be an Israelite and a faith person . . .he had to believe the Battle belonged to God, not mankind's might. Saul didn't know that and if the chronology of 1 Samuel was correct, David already knew His own anointing and God's future plans for him. So - Scripture helped David know the Battle was the Lord's and Goliath had no chance !

That, is the concept of a Champion or Hero (some versions use the word - we don't sometimes remember the classical meaning of the word Hero.) It is important because God will have a huge quandary . . .how to raise up a Representative to deliver mankind from the Fall in Eden. And - much like His great-great grandfather, Jesus will win - in the power of God and the victory is for those He represents - US ! (Oh yes - He had no weapon in His hand - it seemed.) God had Jesus ready - anointed to die before the foundation of the world . . .Ephesians 1:4ff. 1 Peter 1:20.